Judge tosses part of former Jayhawk rower’s lawsuit

LAWRENCE, Kan. — A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit filed by a former University of Kansas rower who alleged she was sexually assaulted by a former football player.

The ruling Friday means that Daisy Tackett will no longer be able to argue that the university should have known there was a heightened risk of sexual assault at apartments where football players lived with less supervision than in residence halls.

But she can continue to pursue other claims, including that that the university was “deliberately indifferent” to her rape report, that her rowing coach made inappropriate comments about rowers’ body types, and that the coach retaliated against her, the Lawrence Journal-World reports.

Tackett alleges she was raped in the fall of 2014 while a freshman. She reported the rape to university officials about a year later, after another rowing team member, Sarah McClure, said she had been sexually assaulted by the same man.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of alleged sexual assault, but Tackett and McClure, who separately sued the school, have said they want their names used.

The player was never charged and denied any wrongdoing. The university’s office of Institutional Opportunity and Access, though, concluded that he had “non-consensual sex” with Tackett and violated the school’s sexual harassment policy with McClure.

In their Title IX lawsuits, the women say the school showed “deliberate indifference” by allowing the player to withdraw instead of expelling him.

Judge J. Thomas Marten wrote in dismissing some of the claims that there were no allegations that the university “somehow encouraged the misconduct.”

Tackett had also argued that the school required female rowers to go to football games and cheer for the players, and encouraged the women to attend off-campus parties with football recruits.

Her attorney, Dan Curry, said Tackett and her parents may appeal the decision not to allow part of the case to move forward, but that “on the whole” they were “pleased” the case was proceeding.

The university had requested that the whole case be thrown out. University spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said in an email that the school was “pleased the court has dismissed significant portions of this lawsuit.”